What is better for iRay? Pre-made ground plane or a primitive w/iray shader?

Sfariah D

I am wanting a ground plane prop for my scene that I want to work on.  Is it better thave a premade ground plane or use a plane primitive and slap on an iray shader?  I understand that the premade prop have a bunch of morphs.  I understand that a primitive can be created easily in the create menu.  Unless is there a way to make morphs for the primitive in DS and save it for future use, or for freebies, or etc?

I know the sky dome can be replaced by an HDRI, but not all HDRI include ground area.  Also I want to use the ground plane and ultra scatter pro to add grass and stuff to the ground plane.\

edit: here is a render of a sky hdri with no ground.

nonesuch00

Well a ground model with all the details modeled into it & iRay materials with sparse details is not going to look different than a flat plane with iRay materials that have normals & displacement and the other relevant maps in equal detail as the the ground modeled.

So it comes down to personal preference if you want that particular look. 

However, in a game or with an animation if your animation has someone tripping on a curb, and your ground is just a flat plane with materials faking depth and everything, let's say, I don't think that those IK & physics libraries do tripping over that curb so you have to fake the trip on the curb with manual animation done frame by frame.

I think that's the case but I'm not sure. As someone that's a beginner animation studier myself in these 3D environments that's something I'd like to know for sure. 

Sfariah D

I did not see that this got a new reply.  Something seems off with the thread on the bookmark page.

Back on topic, so a primative with textures and items on it is not much different than an actual ground plane at least in theory right?

Sven Dullah

I've just started playing with this script by mcasual https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjelevate. It creates morphs from height maps, very easy to use. Create a plane with a sufficient number of polygons, find a good heightmap or make it yourself and apply the script. Grab some free textures over at Texture Heaven or similar, import the maps into IRay Uber and you're good to go:)

Took maybe 10 min to paint this height map and a couple of more to set up the shader (aweSurface). Testrender:

nonesuch00

Miss Bad Wolf said:

I did not see that this got a new reply.  Something seems off with the thread on the bookmark page.

Back on topic, so a primative with textures and items on it is not much different than an actual ground plane at least in theory right?

Yep, that's exactly right.

And I don't know if these hysic simulation libraries used by game engines & Blender & such are programmed to but if a displacement map adds 3D to a rendered image then then the physics engine should be able to detect and handle those 3D dimensions as appropriate. I just don't know if the do. I guess I'll have to ask in a Unity or Blender forum.  

JonnyRay

As Sven pointed out there are ways to generate your own "terrain" like mCasual's script. And that may very well be good enough for what you're trying to accomplish.

That said, I would think that a well designed and created ground "prop" is going to be better overall. An artist working by hand can take into account how the rise and fall of the terrain would affect things like plant growth or the flow of rocks and debris. A generated terrain isn't going to have those details.

On the other hand, given the state of tools and shaders today, it may very well be true that a generated terrain using modern techniques may be better than a poorly created older terrain where the creator either didn't have the skill or the tools to create a realistic looking prop.

So, in the end, just choosing based on whether a "primative" or an pre-made artistic terrain would be better is more dependent on the quality of each object than the method that was used to create them.

Edit: The same is true, by the way, for HDRI's which have ground textures in them. Sometimes I get great results using those. Other times they look way too flat or can even be out of focus. So "it depends" is also going to be the case for just using the "Draw Ground" in the Iray Render / Environment Settings.

nicstt

I'd say it depends on needs.

For that image you posted, a custom one morphed to capture the shadow to at least attempt to follow the clouds. The image the shadow is flat, which draws the eye, well mine at least.

Other times a flat ground plane would work perfectly well.

I use a primitive mostly, but do adjust when the image the character is stood on (when HDRi usualy) doesn't make sense.